Soap bars exhibiting a wood grain like appearance are known. They have been prepared by mixing conventional pigments with the soap formulation which is then processed into a bar in the conventional fashion. Such soap bars, however, have a dull appearance and the wood grain pattern is flat so that the bars do not resemble the appearance of a genuine wood finish. More particularly, such soap bars resemble some of the veneers commonly used in furniture finishing in which the wood pattern of the veneer is obtained by a printing process. It is both dull and flat and does not have the appearance of wood.
Wood for structural, furniture and other finishing processes is obtained from the trunks and heavy branches of trees, specifically the xylem portion, which is the interior of the tree. The wood consists largely and usually of highly oriented fibers, primarily cellulose, along with other natural products, frequently with variations in color. It is this highly oriented cellulose fiber structure which imparts the characteristic appearance to the wood.
If a sample of finished wood with a flat surface is examined, it can be seen that the pattern of light and dark areas show some depth, and as the angle of observation is changed with respect to the light, some shifts in the pattern, albeit slight, can be seen. Some types of wood, for example American walnut, show this depth pattern to a greater extent than others. Further, wood samples with flat surfaces that have been given a finish with an appropriate lacquer have high gloss while unfinished wood may appear dull because of light scattering by the surface.
Japanese patent publication 54 26807 describes soaps having a pearly gloss and a wood grain pattern which are prepared by extruding a soap formulation containing pearly substances through nets or porous sheets and then molding. The wood grain pattern is obtained using conventional pigments and the pearly lustre achieved using titanium dioxide coated mica, bismuth oxychloride and fish scales. It will be appreciated that natural wood grain is not pearly in appearance and an article made to appear pearly does not show a natural finished wood grain effect. Thus the appearance of a polished wood article and an object made of mother-of-pearl are entirely different.
It will therefore be appreciated that the prior art has not been able to produce soap bars which bear a strong resemblance to polished or finished wood. Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to provide a process for producing a soap bar bearing a strong resemblance to polished or finished wood and to provide the resulting extruded soap bars. This and other objects of the invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in this art from the following detailed description.